


Hello Again

by dirtymudblood



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Lost Love, Older Characters, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29365758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirtymudblood/pseuds/dirtymudblood
Summary: It felt like their lives were split in two parts: the time together and the time after.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 11
Kudos: 94
Collections: Dramione Valentine Exchange





	Hello Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FrankieFrancesFrancis_badcouldbeverse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrankieFrancesFrancis_badcouldbeverse/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [DramioneValentineExchange](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/DramioneValentineExchange) collection. 



It felt like their lives were split in two parts: the time together and the time after. 

The time together was the worst of their lives. Constant arguments: why won’t you tell your friends we’re together? Why won’t you defend me to your parents? 

And somehow, the time after was even worse. He followed his parents' wishes to marry Astoria Greengrass. Respectable, Pureblooded Astoria Greengrass. She fell into a predictable relationship with Ron Weasley. Sweet, reliable Ron Weasley. 

She thought it had to end at some point. The yearning for him, the way she compared every moment spent with Ron to every moment spent with him.  _ He  _ did it like  _ this, he  _ touched me like  _ that.  _ But it never ended, not even when she fell pregnant with not  _ his  _ child. 

Astoria fell pregnant at the same time. She saw him in magazines, a protective hand on his wife’s protruding belly while she had Ron’s on hers. They were living their lives in parallels of two lines who had diverged and would never again intersect. 

Scorpius’s birth announcement came just days before Rose’s. Hermione compared his picture to her daughter; even as a newborn he resembled his father’s pale, pointy self. In distinction: Rose was rounded and carried her mother’s tawny complexion. She wondered what their child would be like, if their lines would meet again. 

It did end at that point, in a way. There was little time between Rose and work and her wifely duties to Ron to even consider  _ him.  _ It was a welcome distraction that her second child, Hugo, contributed to. 

When Astoria died, just before Rose and Scorpius began Hogwarts, from a blood curse, she began to consider him once more. Rumors began that the curse had laid dormant and appeared after the birth of her son. Upon her own further research, she found that pregnancy only worsened her condition. A fact Astoria probably already knew when she fell pregnant. 

_ What a woman,  _ Hermione thought,  _ to sacrifice her body and her life to give Malfoy an heir.  _

She would have done that for him too, she believed. She had loved him that much. 

Hermione’s divorce from Ron just two years later was a debate of correlation versus causation. It was amicable. Rose and Hugo handled it well. 

He was actually the one to reach out. Just as she was moving into her own place, he had written her. 

_ How are you _

_ Miss you _

_ What happened _

_ Who are you now  _

She had written back. And then he did. And then she did. And back and forth until it morphed into an invitation to meet for coffee and a catch up. 

He was four minutes late, something she remembered from their time together. Her knee bounced. She was older now. Different after two children and years of working at the Ministry. She had only seen him in black and white article photos. Would his skin be a little more spotted like hers? Fine lines around the mouth?

When the bell to the door jingled and his familiar broad frame came into view, it was like no time had passed. His hairline receded a bit, the angles of his face a little more rounded. But it was like they were 18 again, like there was no time together and time apart.

And they’d fulfilled their obligations to everyone else. He had his perfect Pureblood heir and she’d had her marriage to Ron.

Finally, they can fulfill their obligations to each other. For each other. 

He finds her across the room, his eyes crinkling in the corners as he smiles. 

“Hello again.”

**Author's Note:**

> When I saw this prompt, I knew I had to have it. Thank you so much to frankiefrancesfransic for your wonderful mind and those who put this little Valentines day exchange together! 
> 
> Prompt: They meet again when they are old.


End file.
